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Thursday, October 10, 2013

Robert Irvine's eat! Abruptly Closes

Robert Irvine's eat! in Hilton Head, South Carolina closed abruptly earlier this week for "emergency repairs." There is a message on the restaurant website that states:

"We regret to inform our customers and the local community that we are currently closed for emergency repairs to the restaurant. The timeline for repairs is still not currently known to us and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. On a separate note, earlier this week the landlord listed our building for sale. Our lease expires in January and because of the pending sale and repairs necessary to operate we've debated renewing. Our focus right now is on completing the repairs that are keeping our doors closed. Once those repairs are complete we will decide with our staff how we want to proceed. We will keep everyone updated as we receive further information. A limited menu from eat! will be available at Robert Irvine's nosh during this time. Anyone who had already made reservations prior to this point should contact Kurt Oswald ([email protected] or 843-785-4850) to discuss a special offer to compensate you for the inconvenience."

In addition to that message, there is also a listing on Craigslist that has the restaurant space for sale/lease and it comes with all furniture and kitchen equipment.

I reached out to Robert on Twitter to ask what was going on and he said there was a leak in the roof, which resulted in mold. He also stated that once everything is repaired and safe, they will reopen again, hopefully in a week or so. They have also put a limited menu from eat! at Robert Irvine's other restaurant Nosh. Regarding the Craigslist ad, the lease for the restaurant is up in February, and a decision has not been made on whether to renew it.

It sounds like this is a 'To Be Continued' story and we will have to wait to see the outcome. I keep picturing this as a Restaurant Impossible scene where Robert lifts up a ceiling tile and finds mold, then bolts to the dining room to tell everyone to stop eating and the dinner service is over due to heath reasons.

How embarrassing! My favorite Chinese restaurant got raided by the INS a couple of years ago. I saw it on the news and they were still closed a week later when I stopped by and they had a sign on the door saying "closed for renovations." So, renovations = mold? He probably didn't hire a cook because it would be too expensive and he's never there to do it himself. His food costs are probably 57% and the crack-head (all he wanted to pay for) who's cooking started serving frozen food exclusively. They'd probably not have had to close if they charged $6 for a small house salad and $5 for fresh (frozen) bread. And those people are just like family to him I'm sure..